Direct Route Bus Service must be Protected for North Kildare Bus Commuters says O’Rourke

Local Fianna Fail TD, Frank O’Rourke, has called on the National Transport Authority (NTA) to retain the direct bus services from Celbridge and Leixlip namely Route 67X and 66A respectively. Deputy O’Rourke was speaking after organising a public meeting on BusConnects proposals in Maynooth during the week.

“The direct bus services that are currently in place for commuters in the Celbridge, Leixlip and Maynooth area must be protected under the BusConnects proposals. For instance the 66A, providing 17 services linking Riverforest, Confey to the Dublin City Centre is to be replaced by one direct service to Dublin City and UCD. “

“BusConnects must be about improving the bus service rather than taking services away, given the €2bn investment involved.“

“The proposals also include reducing the direct services from Celbridge and scrapping the 67X by reducing it from 9 services each morning to 3. We must protect these services and I want people to make submissions to the NTA to highlight the importance of these services for our communities.”

“BusConnects has many positive proposals, including more frequent services from all three towns to Dublin, a new orbital route linking Maynooth to Celbridge to Newcastle to Greenogue Business Park to City West and to Tallaght providing better access to these job centres and interchange points; and a bus loop linking Confey, Leixlip, Celbridge, Hazelhatch.”

“The Maynooth C3 Route will be a service every 10 minutes during peak times and will terminate at Ringsend in the South Docklands. At peak hour, additional express buses will connect Maynooth, Leixlip and Celbridge to southern parts of the city centre and UCD.”

“Overall, BusConnects will provide a 27% expansion of services, which will be made up of increased driver hours and an increase of around 10% in the bus fleet.”

“So there are many positives in the BusConnects proposals, but we must ensure that the proposals that negatively affect service levels are removed from the plans. Submissions can be made by emailing to consultations@busconnects.ie. A freephone number 1800 303 653 is also available,” concluded Deputy O’Rourke who also made a submission to protect existing services.